Objective: To create a faster and more reliable method of characterizing porous media

Outcome: A Python application with a wealth of analysis/display features for researchers

Skills: Python

While working at the Hixon Lab, some graduate students and I became dissatisfied with the state of pore analysis in the field of tissue engineering. Negative spaces in cell scaffolds are critical for cell migration/differentiation, but the analysis seen in literature is often simplistic. We set out to create a simple but powerful tool to more easily and repeatably characterize porous media.

This tool became known as PoreVision (pun intended). It will accept an image of porous media, such as an SEM image of a cryogel or electrospun material, and analyze the pores on that cross-section. It has a range of useful features and options to facilitate analysis.

I wrote this entire program, entirely in Python for ease of use by other researchers. The aforementioned grad students provided valuable feedback from a researcher's perspective. This was by far the largest Python project I've completed, and I began to run up against my lack of software development knowledge as its size and scope exceeded that of the simpler scripts I am used to writing.

See the paper here: https://www.mdpi.com/2310-2861/11/2/132